January 16, 2004

NIU Men's Basketball Road Trips An Educational Experience

DeKalb, IL - It's a forgotten art in college basketball. More so than the design of complex offenses and trapping defenses, team travel is when coaches and their creativity can truly sparkle.

Forget those chartered flights that take under an hour. Who needs the long lines and hassle of flying commercial? Give the Northern Illinois men's basketball team 13 teammates, a good book and a bus, and they'll let the American countryside do the rest.

"It's important to be creative, but we can't forget about structure," head coach Rob Judson said. "The players need to know what to expect and have a structured itinerary. At the same time, we need to keep them engaged. We want their minds working and we try to make each trip an educational one. We are all educators."

If one were to drive straight through, the trip from DeKalb, IL, to Akron, OH, would take approximately seven hours. You tell 6-foot-11 James Hughes and 6-foot-10 Bryson McKenzie that they will be sitting on a bus for seven consecutive hours. Instead, coaches are forced to think of creative ways to break up long travel dates; to not only save players and their knees, but keep the team engaged with the task at hand.

"We like to keep our players engaged during our road trips," Judson said. "We will play a movie or stop every couple of hours, but over the last couple of years, we have gotten into the mode of doing some team reading. This year, we passed out (John) Steinbeck's The Pearl. Last year, it was Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. First of all, these books are American Classics. You can never read too much and we are trying to get that across to our guys. Reading is so fundamental to everything we do in society and we want to take advantage of our time together."

And the team has taken advantage. Before departing on the road trip, Judson and his staff learned that the team's fall semester grade-point average was the program's highest in 10 seasons. Never strapped with eligibility issues during the Judson era, the Huskies have seen an improvement in the classroom similar to their improvement on the court.

"I think a number of factors are involved with this improvement," assistant director for academic services Sandy Hafner-Arnold said. "First of all, credit goes to the coaching staff, the student-athletes, our staff and the tutors. These players are put in a position to succeed and they want to succeed. They are responsible when it comes to class work and you can see the results."

Departing DeKalb, IL, at approximately 9 a.m., NIU traveled to Angola, IN, a small town in northeastern Indiana, which is the home of Tri-State University. During the four-hour drive before practice, Judson passed out the John Steinbeck classic with an assignment to read the first and second chapters. Once arriving at Tri-State University, the Huskies took a short quiz on the opening two chapters of the novel. After the quiz, the team practiced for approximately two hours at the school before hopping back on the bus to finish the trek to Cuyahoga Falls, OH, the site of the team hotel.

With students still on winter break, the hotel in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, would become the Huskies haven for the next three days, as they prepared for contests against the University of Akron (Jan. 7) and Bowling Green State University (Jan. 10). During the school year, NIU would typically drive back to DeKalb, IL, if even for a day, to help the players miss as little class as possible. However with class not being in session, the team decided to remain in Ohio with the back-to-back contests in the state.

"It just made sense to stay in Ohio," Judson said. "With school not yet in session, it cut down on our travel time to stay in Ohio and gave our players a chance to develop team chemistry."

It also gave Judson and his staff even more time to prepare. Following NIU's game at MAC Eastern Division favorite Akron, the Huskie coaching staff racked their brains until 2:30 a.m. trying to find the elixir. Evaluation of the team's offensive game plan and diagramming their own defensive structure, it was time for creativity to take a new form … "basketball plays" to stir up success.

"The shots are there, our guys need to continue making more basketball plays," Judson said. "We need to get to the bucket. We need to make timely cuts. We have to recognize where the open spots on the floor are, get there and make a play. We are getting closer. Anyone who follows this team can see that. This team is about to jell. It's going to click in and when it does, it's going to be fun to watch."

During the morning of Thursday, Jan. 8, the team traveled to Canton, OH, to tour the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Home of legendary athletes such as Jim Thorpe, Harold "Red" Grange and Walter Payton, the Huskies viewed footage and enshrinements of athletes at the top of their profession. Featured exhibits at the Hall included the complete jersey worn by Payton when he broke Jim Brown's rushing record in 1984 as well as championship rings from each Super Bowl.

"Associate Athletics Director Robert Collins suggested it," Judson said. "It gave our players a chance to see excellence. Each person enshrined in the Hall of Fame exudes excellence in their field and we wanted our players to see what it takes to get to that level. Again, it was an educational experience as well."

After spending two hours at the Hall of Fame, the team traveled just up the road to North Canton, OH, to practice at Walsh University. A predominantly Catholic institution, Walsh has an enrollment of 1,522 students and is a member of the American Mideast Conference in athletics.

In its two-hour workout at Walsh, the team began working on basketball plays. During 4-of-4 scrimmaging, the Huskies knifed to the hoop, made smart decisions with the ball, but most of all, played inspired basketball. Even after practice, the players stayed. Free throws, ball handling and even more basketball plays were worked on. Perhaps it started to click in for the Huskies on this day.

Checking out of the hotel on Friday (Jan. 9), the team traveled an hour up the road to Oberlin, OH, for a brief workout at Oberlin College. At the NCAA Division III school, the Huskies practiced for just under two hours in the John W. Heisman Club Field House, named after the legendary gridiron coach. A little known fact about Oberlin College, Heisman began his college football coaching career at the school and his 1921 victory over Ohio State by a 7-6 margin is the last time the Buckeyes have fallen to an in-state opponent in college football.

"By practicing at these schools, our players get the chance to see how it is at other universities and how nice our facilities are," Judson said. "It also helps us to create a good relationship with coaching staffs around the Midwest."

While Judson and his assistants are creating relationships with other staffs around the Midwest, the greatest relationship building is coming from within his own team. All too often, players will split up after practice and head in their own direction. On the road, players stick together. Thirteen players, from 13 different backgrounds, coming together to enjoy similar experiences. Most importantly, enjoying each other's company.

"All bonding," freshman center James Hughes said. "That's when we become a team. Our identity is shaped on the road because we spend so much time together. Six or eight hours on a bus, four or five days in a hotel, you get a feel for each person and you get to know him outside of basketball. You can't be a good team without that chemistry. Our chemistry is growing everyday."

With all but four seniors being first or second-year players, it makes sense to see why NIU's development of team chemistry has been a focal point. One thing's for certain, that chemistry is coming and Northern Illinois' road-weary legs in January may pay big dividends in March.